Audio loggers are known devices that are used for the purpose of preserving records of voice communication on a medium such as a tape. They have particular use in police stations, hospitals, prisons, brokerage houses and other locations where there is a need to record a message or conversation and the time and date thereof. After recording, the tapes upon which audio is written are stored for archival purposes.
Recently, digital loggers that use digital audio tapes (DATs) have become commercially available. As with any other recording medium used in a logger, or similar device, a scheme should be provided for retrieving a message or conversation in a reliable and fast manner. Unless there is a scheme whereby the presence of messages can be determined in the storage medium, a large portion of the medium must be played to retrieve the message. In particular there is a need to provide a satisfactory manner for finding a next message i.e., the presence of a message following a message to which one is listening or a previous message, i.e., the message prior to the one to which one is listening.